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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542301">Hell Of A Year</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiBitchBee/pseuds/BiBitchBee'>BiBitchBee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>High School Musical (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Flashbacks, Getting Back Together, Multi, Panic Attacks, Post-Graduation, Post-Movie: High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:47:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,921</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25542301</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/BiBitchBee/pseuds/BiBitchBee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I'll show you that it's one and the same. Baseball, dancing, same game. It's easy. Step up to the plate. Start swinging.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Chad Danforth/Ryan Evans, Chad Danforth/Taylor McKessie, Gabriella Montez/Kelsi Nielsen (one-sided), Troy Bolton/Gabriella Montez</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>127</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hell Of A Year</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ryan and Sharpay Evans were done with high school, and Sharpay could not have been happier to begin helping the drama department at East High while studying her acting. Ryan had gotten the scholarship to Julliard, not that his family needed the money, and had already set up to share a room with Kelsi, who also got the scholarship. But he didn't want to go. Almost immediately after graduation, everyone went to Troy's house for a massive party. Sharpay had gone, but Ryan had gone to Lava Springs to commiserate. So now he sat cross-legged on the baseball diamond of his family's resort. </p><p>
  <em>I'll show you that it's one and the same. Baseball, dancing, same game. It's easy. Step up to the plate. Start swinging.</em>
</p><p>Ryan closed his eyes and tried to press back his tears but he was so far unsuccessful. The summer before senior year was the best of his life, but this school year had been total hell for him. He tried to remember the warm feeling his friends had brought him over the summer. It was hazy in his memory as if he was already forgetting what that happiness felt like. It made him want to cry even more.</p><p>
  <em>Chad smirked at his new friend across the locker room. They were the last two out of the showers, and Ryan could feel Chad staring at him, wearing nothing but his towel. "Hey, Evans." He called. "You should come over here." Ryan had obeyed, mainly out of confusion, and Chad had pressed a quick kiss to his lips and put the baseball cap squarely on his head. "Looks better on you." He mused, and he grabbed Ryan's pile of white clothes when he went to get changed, leaving Ryan dumbfounded with Chad's uniform.</em>
</p><p>Chad wasn't Ryan's first whatever-they-were by a long shot. Ryan had showmances left and right at the theatre camp the twins occasionally attended. But none of them made him feel like Chad did, and he couldn't even really their names if asked. Except for Chad. He wished he could say he didn't know what made the wildcat stand out, but he of course did. What Chad and Ryan had was a lot more than a showmance.</p><p>
  <em>"I love you." Chad murmured into his skin. The two boys were in Ryan's bedroom at the resort after the talent show. They were just making out, Chad leaving marks on Ryan's collarbone when he let it slip. Chad froze upon saying it, but Ryan grabbed him by the chin and kissed him on the mouth before he repeated the sentiment.</em>
</p><p>If asked, Ryan would say he was never in love. That he could only wish to be that intimate with someone. Because Chad, at the end of the summer, had laid down the law and left Ryan in a drought after a torrential downpour in all the worst possible ways.</p><p>
  <em>"We need to talk, Ryan." Chad had said just before the pool party. Ryan's skin froze into ice as they sat on his bed. The same bed where they had intimate nights and shared I Love Yous. "I- Ry you can't tell anyone about this." He had said and Ryan had already started to cry. "I'm not out to the school, to my friends, I'm just not ready. I'm sorry, I love you." He had said, but when he reached out for Ryan's arm, Ryan jerked back like had been burned and Chad left silently.</em>
</p><p>Ryan wished so desperately that could have been it, and Ryan would've moved on as simple as 1, 2, 3. His wishes did not come true when he was 7 and wished his sister was nicer to him, and they did not come true when he was 17 and wished that he had never fallen in love with a Wildcat like Chad Davenport.</p><p>
  <em>"Taylor McKesse, will you go to prom with me?" Ryan could pick the voice out from a thousand, but the fact that Troy silenced the room meant he didn't have to. Ryan felt tears welling up and ran to the first place he could think of- the piano room. He found Sharpay and spilled his secrets to her, despite never calling Chad by name. Sharpay somehow turned this into a plan.</em>
</p><p>Every time something big happens, Sharpay seems to grow by the end. Getting Gabriella's understudy mellowed her out for the school year. Being embarrassed by the Wildcats kept her mellow until the next show. Graduation seemed to mellow her again, but who knew how long that would last. When Ryan had told his twin sister he was in love with a jock boy, she somehow made it a plan to get her a solo in the musical.</p><p>
  <em>"Great. I'll pick you up at eight." The words felt vile in his mouth, and he already knew his senior prom was going to be a disaster. He had intentions of going alone and having fun with friends, but then standing alone awkwardly during the slow dances, and trying really hard not to look at Chad in a tuxedo. He had gone with Kelsi, but by the end of the night they were crying in her bedroom together and coming out to each other.</em>
</p><p>The rest of the year had been no better, Chad and Taylor being just as obnoxious as Troy and Gabriella in their relationship. Kelsi and he spent more time together, griping about being into someone in a straight relationship- she had told him she had a thing for good voices instead of outright saying Gabriella which led to him teasing her and saying she was into Sharpay- and working on the musical. People began to think they were a couple, and they didn't correct them. What's the point when it's a free beard, right? But then the musical came and Chad missed the final scene to shoot hoops with Troy, apparently. He came up to Ryan afterward.</p><p><em>"Ryan." The boy froze in his changing from the cap and gown outfit to his regular clothing. Chad was next to him, clutching a basketball at his hip. "Can we talk?" He wasn't </em>his <em>Chad, though. The ball proved it even more. The Chad Ryan had fallen in love with only showed himself on the very rarest of occasions. This was School Chad, the "What team? Wildcats!" Chad, the Straight with a capital S Chad that was dating Taylor. Ryan shook his head, but Chad began to ramble about the past and baseball and Ryan didn't think he'd ever left a building faster.</em></p><p>Graduation was no different, either. Taylor's valedictorian speech talked in part about her relationship with Chad, and Ryan tried to keep himself happy through it. Chad came up to him after and told him they really needed to talk, and Ryan had bolted to his car and called his twin only once he was halfway to the resort.</p><p>
  <em>"Ry, please talk to me." Chad pleaded as Ryan tried to flee as fast as he could. "This is serious, we need to talk. For old time's sake?" Ryan froze and turned to Chad. He grabbed the ever-present basketball from his 'friend' and chucked it as hard as he could in the other direction before sprinting away.</em>
</p><p>"You were right, you know." An all too familiar voice brought Ryan out of his deep thoughts and he rushed to wipe away his tears before he registered the voice. His head turned slowly to see Chad standing a few feet away from him. "Baseball, dancing. Same game." Chad was holding what looked like a present box in one hand, the other stuffed into his pocket. The jock chuckled but Ryan only scowled.</p><p>"What do you want from me, Chad?" Ryan asked, voice coming out much smaller and desperate that he meant for it. "Because we're done now. We graduated. I'm done. I don't have to see you in the halls with Taylor and pretend it doesn't bother me, I don't have to have panic attacks because you asked her to prom in front of literally the entire school. I don't have to pretend what we had was nothing, because I can just live without waiting for you anymore. So make it fast, please."</p><p>Chad was staring at him. "I broke up with Taylor. Earlier today. We weren't anything real, not like Troy and Gabi, I just wanted to distract myself. From you." He mumbled. Ryan scoffed. "Look, I know I was an asshole all year. I know I shouldn't have ditched you and then gotten with Taylor like I did and I know I should have just talked to you but I was terrified. Troy auditioned for a musical and it changed the entire fabric of our school. This was big for me and I wasn't ready.</p><p>"But I think I am now. I came out to my parents last week. Troy and Gabi yesterday. Taylor earlier. I just needed time to figure myself out, because when we first started going out it was because I saw you playing ball and thought <em>I wanna kiss him </em>and I just did. I didn't think about what it meant about us or about me and it took me the whole year to realize how stupid I was for leaving things like I did. So, I wanted to apologize. And give you this. Happy graduation, Ry."</p><p>He held out the present box, wrapped in red wrapping paper and Ryan took it sheepishly. He opened the paper carefully and it revealed a shoebox. He sighed. "Chad, please don't make me do this again. I just started to get over you." Ryan pleaded with him, and Chad looked physically pained by the words. Ryan took a deep breath and opened the box.</p><p>It was his hat. The dark blue and white-striped hat that Chad had stolen on the day of the fateful baseball game. It was clean as new, shining the bright white in his face. It was just as he'd last seen it, though technically he'd last seen it on Chad's head. He started to cry again. he closed the box carefully and stood up to face Chad. "Why-"</p><p>He was going to start on <em>Why would you give this to me? </em>and <em>What do you mean you think you're ready now? </em>When Chad smashed their lips together. It was full of the passion and fire he remembered, as well as the accompanying tenderness and care that came from kissing Chad. Ryan immediately snaked his arm around Chad's waist and Chad put his hand on the back of Ryan's neck. He then nuzzled his face into the lighter boy's neck as well.</p><p>"I'm so so sorry, Ry. I love you so much, please forgive me. Please, I need you. This whole year I was miserable. I told Taylor I was always with Troy and I told Troy I was always with Taylor so I'd never actually have to leave the house. I spent half my time listening to Wicked. I missed you so much, baby." He could feel wetness pooling into his shoulder, which meant Chad was crying too.</p><p>"Chad," he coaxed, and Chad indeed did pull away from Ryan's shoulder to look him in the eyes. "I love you too, I miss you too, and of course I forgive you, Wildcat." Chad smiled at him brightly through the tears actively streaming down his face and they came together to kiss again. It was the beginning to the happily ever after Ryan had always dreamed of.</p>
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